It’s unclear whether the main opposition force, the Armenian National Congress of ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, will pass the parliamentary threshold. Exit polls give the bloc 6.4 percent, below the required threshold of seven percent. Vote tabulation is currently underway and results only from 35 polling stations are available so far. According to early results, the Republican Party got 71.8 percent and Prosperous Armenia received 13.21 percent. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation was third with 7.77 percent. Other parties got less than 3 percent. According to the Central Election Commission results, more than 1.5 million, or 62.33 percent of almost 2.5 million eligible voters cast a ballot in Sunday’s election. More than 31,000 domestic observers and 647 international monitors monitored the voting. The Armenian police said it received 62 reports about possible election violations; they are investigating all of them, and they’ve already launched three criminal cases. Police also investigated 43 reports on the internet and in the mass media about suspected violations. Officials shall release preliminary results within 24 hours after the vote; the official result is due in a week.

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With 65 percent of votes counted in Greek parliamentary elections, centre-right New Democracy received 19.8 percent of the vote, whilst its coalition partner, centre-left PASOK was third with 13.6 percent of the vote. The results give the ruling Greek coalition a weak majority in parliament, with New Democracy receiving 61 seats in parliament plus the 50 seats the winner gets under the law. Its coalition partner got 42 seats. Pro-bailout New Democracy and PASOK are amongst the parties likely to pass the 3 percent parliamentary threshold. Syriza, a radical leftist party, was a solid runner-up; its 16.2 percent of the vote gave it 50 parliamentary seats. Other parties that are likely to win seats in parliament are Independent Greeks with 10.5 percent (32 seats), the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) with 8.4 percent (26), neo-Nazi Golden Dawn with 6.9 percent (21), and the Democratic Left with 6 percent (18). Final results are due on Monday.

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According to first results, incumbent Serbian president Boris Tadić and ex-nationalist Tomislav Nikolić are likely to face each other in a presidential election runoff. Serbia voted in presidential, parliamentary, and municipal elections on Sunday. According to the country’s election commission’s data obtained by Serbian election officials from 26 percent of polling stations, Tadić received 24.81 percent of the vote and has a narrow lead over his main election rival, who has 24.71 percent. Interior Minister Ivica Dačić was third, with 15.76 percent of the vote. In Serbia’s previous presidential election in 2008, Nikolić led after the first round, but lost 2.3 percent to Tadić in the runoff. The Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) said in its early results that Tadić won 26.7 percent, whilst Nikolić received 25.5 percent of the vote. The candidates’ political parties are also close in the parliamentary election. With 7.5 percent of ballots counted, Tadić’s Democratic Party (DS) received 21.3 percent, and it appeared to be narrowly behind Nikolić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has 24.2 percent.

There’s no joy in Mudville tonight. The pro-American parties are on the run… with the largest defeat for the neocons coming in France. No doubt, M Hollande will accelerate French withdrawal from the Afghan quagmire, and he’ll not involve France in any more US neocon warmongering. In Armenia, the local pro-Russian bosses won, but the USA won’t trumpet the obvious fraud because of the Armenian-American diaspora (which has about as much clout as the Israel Lobby and Greek Lobby does… Russia gets bad press because there’s no powerful Russian-American Lobby). Serbia’s due for a runoff, a rematch between Tadić and Nikolić. In Greece, the pro-austerity parties only won a very narrow four-seat margin because of the oddbod election law that hands over 50 additional seats to the top vote-getter. The pro-austerity slimers only got a third of the vote (33.4 percent), but this wrinkle in the Greek election law gave the parliament to the pro-oligarch friends of the affluent effluent (shades of “hanging chads”, no?). The majority’s so slim that the chances of a “no confidence” vote are VERY high indeed.

In short, Langley will pull no corks today… and that’s a GOOD thing… bet on RED.